BBC jobs: how to pass BBC’s assessment tests for professional jobs, internships, and graduate schemes.

Over 60% of job candidates get rejected in the online psychometric test stage of recruitment. Practice today and get your dream job with BBC first time. Follow proven recommendations and tips from Graduates First, a team of organisational psychologists and recruiters, to pass BBC’s aptitude tests, interviews and assessment centre.

The BBC recruitment process is made of four different stages; each requiring you to do your best and outperform your competitors if you want to land your dream job. Our step-by-step guide allows you to benefit from expert tips at each of the stages of BBC’s recruitment process, which consists of:

STEP 1

BBC Online Application

This part of the recruitment process is your first chance to set a good impression and stand out from your competition. The online form will ask you to provide details of your education and any academic results, work experience and may involve potentially some motivational questions, depending on the business area you apply to.

Throughout your online application, you need to refer to the key competencies sought after by BBC recruiters. Make sure your achievements and projects you have worked on reflect these skills or values:

Analytical skills

Flexibility

Resilience

Excellent written and verbal communication skills

Accuracy and attention to detail

Tip: Apply as early as possible. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. By doing so, you increase your chances of progression to the next stage of the recruitment process.

It is very likely that this stage will also include some motivational questions, such as:

What is your motivation to work at BBC?

Why do you want to apply for this particular role?

Tip: In answering motivational questions remember to be as precise as possible: refer to unique facts about BBC that motivate you to work there, such as special awards, CSR projects, etc. When describing why you want to apply for this specific role mention the core skills required for this position and how these match both your previous experiences, and also personal interests.

STEP 2

BBC assessment – Online aptitude tests

After you complete the online application form you will find out whether you have progressed to the next stage of the recruitment stage – this will consist of online aptitude tests. Depending on your line of business, these may include BBC’s:

The difficulty level of BBC’s online tests will depend on the business area and position you applied to, so be sure to carefully read all the information in the aptitude test invite email.

A. BBC’s Situational Judgement Test

BBC’s Situational Judgement Test will provide you with a number of scenarios that you are likely to encounter when working at BBC; it will require you to identify the best and worst courses of actions. You will need to use your common sense, and appreciation of what it takes to excel in a professional environment, to give satisfactory responses.

Tip: BBC’s Situational Judgement Test is written in a way that makes all answers seem desirable. Always bear in mind which response is the most practical and demonstrates the key characteristics of an ideal candidate.

You will only need around 30 minutes to complete this test.

For more hints on how to pass a situational judgement test, visit our Youtube channel

BBC-style Situational Judgement Test Example

B. BBC Numerical Reasoning Test

Since working at BBC will require you to use numerical skills and ability to interpret data from tables and charts, the BBC Numerical Reasoning Test will examine your ability to understand a previously unseen passage – as well as its data. You will be required to perform basic GCSE Maths calculations.

Do not worry if you have not done Maths in a while! The complexity of this does not lie in the knowledge tested but in the time pressure and stress involved. When taking your Numerical Reasoning Test, you will have less than a minute to read the question, analyse data provided and perform the necessary calculations.

Tip: The only way to succeed is to take practice tests beforehand. This way you familiarise yourself with the types of questions and become more confident. Learn how to manage your stress in a safe environment and you will not have to face rejection – just because you were unfamiliar with the process.

For more hints on how to pass a numerical reasoning test, visit our Youtube channel

If you are looking for a BBC-style Numerical Reasoning Test with answers, worked-solutions and professional score reports including personalised tips based on your performance – then Graduates First has it covered.

BBC-style Numerical Reasoning Test Example

C. BBCVerbal Reasoning Test

In the same way BBC’s Numerical Reasoning Test examines how confident a candidate is in their numerical calculations, BBC’s verbal reasoning test strives to identify whether a candidate can accurately extract the relevant information from a previously unseen passage of text to analyse whether subsequent statements are true, false, or impossible to say based on the information contained in the passage of text.

For more hints on how to pass a verbal reasoning test, visit our Youtube channel

BBC’sVerbal Reasoning Test may be more difficult for people who are not native-speakers of English, but nevertheless the advice we give you is to practice verbal reasoning test questions as much as you can to understand the specific way in which the texts are built and questions asked

BBC-style Verbal Reasoning Test example

D. BBC Abstract Reasoning Test

BBC’s Abstract Reasoning Test, often referred to as a logical, diagrammatic or inductive test, will expose you to 5 diagrams with varying shapes and ask you to identify the right pattern and indicate what comes next in the sequence.

What makes the BBC Abstract Reasoning Test difficult is that there is no limit to how abstract these patterns and trends can be. They will usually evolve around the size, arrangement, movements and colours of two and three-dimensional shapes.

Tip: Some examples will involve varying patterns from more than one of the categories mentioned above.

The only way you can prepare for BBC’s Abstract/Logical/Inductive Reasoning Test is to practice the sample questions. By doing so, you will familiarise yourself with some of the most common questions types, become more comfortable and get used to thinking under time pressure.

For more hints on how to pass a logical reasoning test, visit our Youtube channel

If you are looking for a BBC-style Abstract Reasoning Test with answers, worked-solutions and professional score reports including personalised tips based on your performance, then Graduates First has it covered.

STEP 3

BBC Assessment Centre

You are almost at the last stage of the recruitment stage so congratulations if you have made it this far. There are only a few things left before you land your dream job.

The BBC Assessment Centre will be a chance for you to network with professionals working at BBC, and learn more about the company. It is the perfect time for you to get a better insight into what it is like to work at BBC.

The exercises you might be expected to take are:

BBC Group Exercise

This exercise will examine your ability to work as part of a team. Throughout this task, various BBC employees will observe you and how you solve problems when required to work with others.

It is important that you are confident to share and argue for your ideas, but also be ready to contribute to somebody else’s input. Most importantly, speak clearly and do not interrupt anyone!

Tip: Try to persuade others towards your ideas and also ask critical thought-provoking questions; but only do so when it feels natural. You need to appreciate that other people on the team are just as important.

This exercise will mainly test you on your communication skills. Your assessors will be looking at your body language and tone to see how you would cope with delivering professional presentations, taking part in group discussions or explaining your point of view.

Presentation Exercise tip: Always stand straight, make regular eye contact with everyone in the audience and do not speak too fast.

STEP 4

BBC Final Interviews

This stage of the recruitment process will consist of a number of one-on-one interviews with directors or senior managers from the business area you wish to join. They will be competency based, but are also very likely to include some motivation and technical questions.

Tip #1: Each interview should last up to 30 minutes. Although it might seem long, remember to refer to specific arguments following the S, T, A, R method: describe the particular situation, the task you were faced with, and what action you took to resolve it, concluding with the result of your work.

Tip #2: Make sure to refer to the BBC core competencies covered above, when answering each question.

You should prepare some ideas of examples that you can use later during your interview, and you should base these on the most common types of interview questions.

Want to know what questions could come up in your interview? Graduates First can help with the Question Identifier Tool (QIT). You can purchase it here.

At the end of the interviews, you will be given a chance to ask questions. You must definitely use this opportunity! This is a way of showing that you are interested and motivated, so prepare some thought-provoking and interesting questions beforehand. You can also ask your interviewer about their career path.

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